🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Abu Mena
Late Roman to Early Byzantine 4th–7th c. CE, peak 5th–6th c. · Coptic Christian / Byzantine Egyptian
Desert pilgrimage city of Saint Menas, 4th–7th c., now endangered by water table rise.
Search places, or jump to a section
The catalogue
1,206 places to sift through. Narrow by kind, country, period or how firmly each one is established — contested and pseudoarchaeological claims are labelled here, never hidden.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Late Roman to Early Byzantine 4th–7th c. CE, peak 5th–6th c. · Coptic Christian / Byzantine Egyptian
Desert pilgrimage city of Saint Menas, 4th–7th c., now endangered by water table rise.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Ancient city
Late Classic · Maya (Petexbatun)
Petexbatun war capital (629–761 CE) — Tikal breakaway dynastic citadel with 40-m El Duende pyramid and trench walls.
🇧🇷 Brazil · Ancient city
Xinguano 800–1600 CE (late pre-Columbian Amazon) · Xinguano (Arawak, ancestral Kuikuro)
Eastern Kuhikugu causeway-plaza K15 — 220 m plaza with 20 m causeways linking to fish weir, 2.8 km east of X11.
🇲🇩 Moldova · Ancient city
Iron Age Geto-Dacian (5th–1st c. BCE) + Medieval Tatar Golden Horde Shehr al-Jadid 14th c. + cave monastery 13th–18th c. · Geto-Dacians, Golden Horde, Moldovan monks
Orheiul Vechi Cave Monastery and Geto-Dacian Fortress in Orhei District, Trebujeni–Butuceni, Răut river loop cliffs, Moldova is a Iron Age Geto-Dacian (5th–1st c.
🇧🇷 Brazil · Ancient city
Xinguano late 1100–1600 CE · Xinguano (ancestral Kuikuro)
Southern reservoir satellite K17 of Kuhikugu — 140 m reservoir and plazas at Seki Lake south, Xingu hydraulic answer to Upano.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Ptolemaic to Late Roman (3rd c. BCE – 5th c. CE) · Graeco-Roman Egyptian (Ptolemaic cleruchs, Roman veterans)
Central granary insula of Karanis — twin vaulted granaries at Kom Aushim buried 3–6 m with papyrus jar.
🇹🇭 Thailand · Ancient city
Dvaravati Culture 6th–13th CE (Mon) → Khmer → Ayutthaya · Dvaravati Mon (Austroasiatic Mon) with Mahayana–Hindu–Theravada syncretism
Dvaravati (Mon) ancient twin-city (c.500–1300 CE) on the Pa Sak plains 200 km north of Bangkok in Phetchabun — UNESCO World Heritage 2023 'The Ancient Town of Si Thep and its Associated Dvaravati…
🇨🇾 Cyprus · Submerged site
Hellenistic to Byzantine (312 BCE – 1191 CE) · Cypriot-Greek / Ptolemaic / Roman
312–294 BCE outer harbour of Amathus city-kingdom preserved as three rubble moles at −4 m — Cyprus's first underwater archaeological park off Agios Tychonas.
🇾🇪 Yemen · Hydraulic works
Sabaean Kingdom 750 BCE - 570 CE · Sabaean (Saba) kingdom
750 BCE Sabaean secondary saddle dam (420 m) and north sluice extension of Marib, doubling irrigated area via 2.1 km north canal.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Early Dynastic to Late Antique (3500 BCE – 400 CE) · Egyptian Saite / Persian / Greek mercenary / Ptolemaic
Saite 26th Dyn capital 664 BCE — Neith enclosure 700x600 m with walls 20 m thick and harbour 600x300 m now sebkha at +2 m under 8 m silt.
🇮🇶 Iraq · Hydraulic works
Neo-Assyrian Empire 879-612 BCE · Assyrian Neo-Assyrian imperial engineers
879 BCE Assyrian Tigris weir dam (200 m) at Nimrud with 5 gated sluices feeding Sennacherib's canal cascade to Nineveh.
🇮🇱 Israel · Hydraulic works
Second Temple (Herodian) to Byzantine · Herodian Jewish / Roman / Byzantine
Mamilla (Birket Mamilla) reservoir (760 m asl, 31°46′42″N 35°13′15″E 31.7786,35.2209) 650 m NW of Jaffa Gate in centre of Mamilla Cemetery, one of Jerusalem's ancient pools (Upper pool of Gihon)…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Ptolemaic to Early Arab (300 BCE – 800 CE) · Ptolemaic / Byzantine
Southern vineyard of Marea — 4 presses and saqiya canal 4.5 m linking to harbour, now 1.8 m silted south chora.
🇷🇺 Russia · Submerged site
Classical to Medieval (500 BCE – 1000 CE) · Bosporan Greek
Western Kuban mole of Phanagoria — timber-piled harbour at former river mouth, now silted 1–2.5 m in delta.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Archaic to Late Antique (700 BCE – 600 CE) · Dorian Greek / Carian / Roman / Byzantine
Dorian Myndus — 150 m causeway to Rabbit Island and drowned harbour walls at −3 m in Gümüşlük Bay, walkable at low tide.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Mauryan–Sunga–Satavahana–Gupta 600 BCE–500 CE · Magadhan → Sunga → Satavahana → Gupta
Ancient Vesanagara city mound at Betwa-Bes confluence — Sunga–Satavahana twin capital of Vidisha (600 BCE–500 CE).
🇵🇰 Pakistan · Hydraulic works
Late Bronze to Indo-Greek (Gandhara) 1400 BCE - 200 CE · Gandhara Grave Culture to Indo-Greek
Late Bronze rock-cut canal (3 km, 4 m wide, 1390 BCE) diverting Swat River to Bir-Kot Ghundai Indo-Greek city.
🇵🇪 Peru · Ancient city
Middle Horizon (c.600–800 CE) Wari Empire · Wari (Huari)
Conchopata, 9 km northeast of Ayacucho city at 2,800 m, is the celebrated Wari satellite city where William Isbell and Anita Cook uncovered the empire's face-neck jar cult.
🇮🇹 Italy · Buried city
Archaic to Roman (720 BCE – 193 BCE Thurii/Copia) · Achaean Greek / Krotoniate besiegers / Thurian successors
Northern canal of Kroton's 510 BCE Crati diversion drowning Sybaris — 3.2 km silted channel with revetment.
🇨🇾 Cyprus · Buried city
Late Bronze Age (1600–1050 BCE) · Cypriot-Alashiyan / Mycenaean / Levantine
Alashiya capital 1600 BCE — Pedieos estuary harbour 400x200 m silted 3 km inland with Cyclopean walls 15 m thick and copper oxhide ingots.
🇷🇺 Russia · Submerged site
Archaic to Late Antiquity (6th c. BCE – 500 CE) · Ionian Greek / Bosporan / Roman
Central strait emporium of Patrai — transshipment mole at 2–4 m in Kerch Strait handling grain toll.
🇬🇷 Greece · Submerged site
Classical to Late Antique (500 BCE – 600 CE) · Spartan / Roman
Sparta's naval harbour — Roman quays and 70 m concrete mole now at −4 m off Gytheio and Marathonisi, mapped by Flemming 1968–71.
🇨🇾 Cyprus · Submerged site
Iron Age to Early Byzantine (1100 BCE – 648 CE) · Cypriot-Greek / Phoenician / Ptolemaic / Roman / Byzantine
Twin lagoon harbours of Evagoras's Salamis drowned 2.0 m — Flemming 1974 mapped diagonal causeway and quays at −2 m in Famagusta lagoon.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient city
Postclassic (c.1200–1519 CE) Totonac – Late Classic foundations · Totonac
Cempoala (Nahuatl Cēmpoalātl, place of twenty waters) is the lowland Totonac metropolis on the coastal plain at Úrsulo Galván, Veracruz, at 10 m asl.